INFINITY TRAIN: BOOK TWO – A DVD and Digital HD Review by John Strange

INFINITY TRAIN: BOOK TWO – A DVD and Digital HD Review by John Strange

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the DVD I reviewed in this Blog Post.  The opinions I share are my own.

The showrunners of Infinity Train decided to follow Mirror Tulip (like Tulip, Mirror Tulip is voiced by Ashley Johnson) rather than Tulip, the central character of season one.  At first, I was a bit taken aback by the change but early in the first episode, I was hooked.

Mirror Tulip (or “MT”) has a view of the world of the train that is somewhat unique.  Unlike Tulip, she has no number on her hand.  This marks her as a non-passenger.  It makes her less than the passengers to the train’s controller.

MT’s travails are made more difficult thanks to her bad attitude towards… well, her predicament.  Regardless of this, she gathers good traveling companions, Alan Dracula (a silent character) and Jesse Cosay (voiced by Robbie Daymond).

Her fight to get away from the train (and her constant tormenters, the Reflection Police) sees her encountering some of the same beings we met in season one.  One-One (Glad-One, voiced by Jeremy Crutchley and Sad-One, voiced by Owen Dennis) and The Cat (voiced by Kate Mulgrew), chief among them.

The whole season is an interesting choice by the writing team, the producers, and the series creator.  It gave them access to a group of storylines not possible by following Tulip.  This stream of episodes was well-written and quite enjoyable.

Those of you who read my home release reviews will know how much I love director commentaries.  Season two has a commentary for each episode.  Each had the writer of the episode joining the series creator and the supervising producer talking about the ideas and decisions behind that episode.  They are all good, interesting, and enjoyable.

The Art Gallery (5:13 minutes in length) contain storyboard and test drawings of characters and locations, with a selection of photographs showing the artists, working and playing, during the middle of the sequence.  It is okay, but thanks to the way they play as a video, you can’t get a really good look at any single frame without constantly pressing pause.

Finally, we have four videos the filmmakers call “Animatics”.  These are, basically, a storyboard view of the episode in question.  Honestly, they got on my nerves.  I didn’t actually learn anything new from watching them.

What we have at the end of the day are one set of really good bonus extras, one okay video of artist images, and a set of annoying “animated” storyboards.  Commentaries are worthy of 5-stars but the other two drop to rating to 3-stars.

Creator:

• Owen Dennis

Cast:

• Ashley Johnson, Robbie Daymond, Jeremy Crutchley, Owen Dennis, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Kyle McCarley, Ben Mendelsohn, Bradley Whitford, Owen Dennis, Justin Felbinger

Episodes:

1. The Black Market Car
2. The Family Tree Car
3. The Map Car
4. The Toad Car
5. The Parasite Car
6. The Lucky Cat Car
7. The Mall Car
8. The Wasteland
9. The Tape Car
10. The Number Car

Extras:

Digital:

• Not known, I was not given access to the digital version of the offering to use as part of my review.

DVD:

• Audio Commentaries

1. The Black Market Car
2. The Family Tree Car
3. The Map Car
4. The Toad Car
5. The Parasite Car
6. The Lucky Cat Car
7. The Mall Car
8. The Wasteland
9. The Tape Car
10. The Number Car

• Art Gallery (5:13)

• Animatics

1. The Tape Car Animatic
2. The Number Car Animatic
3. The Lucky Cat Car Animatic
4. The Black Market Car Animatic

Specifications:

Runtime:

Feature:

• 114 Minutes

Enhanced Content:

• 162 Minutes

Studio:

• Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Inc.

Release Date:

• 05/25/2021

Region:

• A/1 (U.S. and Canada only)

MPAA Rating:

• TV-Y7

Selig Rating:

Film Rating:

• 5 Stars

Bonus Features Rating:

• 3 Stars

Picture Quality Rating:

• 4 Stars (Due to watching on DVD versus Blu-ray. Blu-ray is not being offered for this release.)

Audio Quality Rating:

• 5 Stars

Selig Rating Scale:

5 Stars: Should add to your DVD collection at any cost

4 Stars: Worth owning, but try to catch it a sale

3 Stars: Plan to get it, but wait to buy it used

2 Stars: Worth taking a look at, but not owning

1 Star: Pick it up at a garage sale and use it for drinks

0 Stars: Makes a great Trap Shooting target